[Dragaera] Iorich ***SPOILERS****

[Philip Hart]

On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Jon%20Lincicum wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Philip Hart" <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> To: "SKZB List" <dragaera at dragaera.info>
> Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 2:01:08 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
> Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Iorich ***SPOILERS****
>
>
>
> On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Jon%20Lincicum wrote:
>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Philip Hart" <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
>> To: "SKZB List" <dragaera at dragaera.info>
>> Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 1:08:42 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
>> Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Iorich ***SPOILERS****
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:
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>>>>> Jhereg are still going to want his soul destroyed. He needs to either
>>>>> make peace with, or destroy, the *entire* "Organization" -- or die, of
>>>>> course.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The problem is, the Jhereg currently see both of these as essentially
>>> the same thing. Vlad, in dying, will provide the object lesson that will
>>> prevent other upstart criminals from thumbing their nose at the
>>> Organization, and cause it, eventually, to fall apart.
>>
>> But he is no longer a good object lesson. The council can say, alright,
>> we've spent enough money and blood making this guy's life miserable to
>> prove that anyone without the resources to survive us - skills in
>> witchcraft and evading sorcery, close friends in the highest places,
>> first-name basis with gods, a GW - should not.
>
> All of which makes it a *more effective* object lesson. If someone with 
> all those advantages can still get shined for crossing the Jhereg, why 
> would anyone else ever dare to?

He's survived for eight years while getting much more powerful.  He's 
providing a bad object lesson right now.  They're making matters worse by 
not cutting their losses and making an example of the next guy.  Heck, 
they should just find someone who needs eliminating, frame him (maybe even 
for Vlad's offenses - e.g., the Imperial rep really asked Vlad for a 
bribe [like killing a council member] to get standard service then 
pretended to have gotten roughed up to cover it - to the extent 
possible), and kill him.  If Vlad dies a natural death, they're really 
screwed.  If they call off the fatwa they'll take a hit for a while 
perhaps, but they're tough enough to defend their position - one 
incredibly exceptional guy gets away with a breach of custom, ten 
thought-they-were-exceptional guys don't and then there's no eleventh.


>> It's become counterproductive to the council to attack Vlad. They've 
>> earned a great deal of enmity from Aliera and the other Dragons which 
>> will not fade. They've used a high noble as bait. They're likely to get 
>> themselves slaughtered to prove a point far past any sensible 
>> applicability.
>
> They are certainly incurring collateral damage in their pursuit of Vlad. 
> Of course, they were willing to accept much worse in their pursuit of 
> Mellar.

That was financial and immediately existential, not a point of honor which 
everyone agrees on or protection for the Imperial representative, who as 
of _Iorich_ is doing stuff more to the detriment of the relationship to 
the Orb and other houses than whatever Vlad did.  Is it not fair to say 
that Vlad got mixed up with what could be accurately described and if not 
sold as a rogue head Jhereg and took some license in defending himself and 
his family?